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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Babcock wins contract with BBC World Service

Babcock International Group (Babcock) has won a 10-year contract to continue providing services relating to the transmission and distribution of radio and television for the BBC World Service.The contract was awarded to Babcock following a rigorous competitive process. It is designed to ensure that the BBC receives the optimum value for money that continues to deliver high levels of service for its audience. The contract start date is 1 April 2012; it is worth circa £200 million over 10 years.Babcock has been a trusted delivery partner for the BBC World Service for 15 years, and has ensured that the BBC World Service reached its audience of 166 million. Under the terms of the new contract, Babcock will build upon this heritage and provide essential support to ensure that the BBC provides a reliable and resilient service to its global audience. This will include:Scheduling and co-ordination of all BBC World Service shortwave broadcasts across the globe. In the first year of the new contract Babcock will co-ordinate a total of 180,335 hours of transmissions for the BBC.Operating and maintaining the BBC's six high power sites and a power station to ensure global coverage. This includes the BBC key target areas of Africa and the Middle East, the Indian Sub-Continent and South East Asia.Monitoring of high frequency broadcast performance (using independent data). The BBC is committed to offering the best quality of service to its worldwide audience and Babcock's monitoring ensures the best possible audio quality is achieved in the desired target areas.Managing the satellite network contracts and support of the satellite distribution systems including 1,300 receivers worldwide in over 650 locations in 128 countries.Maintaining the BBC World Service's FM Relay network. In addition to the satellite receiver maintenance, Babcock will support the equipment of more than 150 FM relay sites around the world. This will underpin the resilience of the service offered by the BBC.By the end of the new contract the partnership will have lasted for a quarter of a century. In 2009 Babcock and the BBC World Service jointly won the 'Team of the Year - Professional and Support Services' at the BBC Global News Reith Awards.This was the first time an external supplier won an award at this event. The year after Babcock was selected as the winner of the Reith Award under the category of Professional Services.Bryan Coombes, Director, Communications, Babcock, said: "Our history of working in partnership with the BBC shows that we can deliver value for money and unprecedented levels of performance. We know and understand the BBC and the broadcasting industry and are committed to finding the right solutions to the challenges the broadcaster faces over the next ten years. We will achieve this through offering innovative ideas that drive efficiencies over the life of the contract."Nigel Fry, Head of Distribution BBC Global News, said:"The new contract with Babcock builds on the success of the last 15 years. It will provide us with clarity of costs over the coming years, and significant savings that are critical in the current economic climate. Importantly, these savings will not affect the quality of service that our global audience expects."